Mr Cardmaker Figures it Out





 

 

Do you ever find, in your stamp collection, that sentiment stamp that you look at and say, "WHAT am I going to do with you?"   Well, I bought Stampin Up's Smarty Pants set ages ago.  I really had just about signed off on it as a "what was I thinking?" moment when I ran across it, and decided to challenge myself.

 

I made this-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am NEVER one to feel obligated to stick to one stamp set when I'm making something (uh, unless somebody's gifting me the set and asking for samples to show).  If the image works, I'm pulling it out!  The clouds and the orange sun rays that are peeking out from behind the vellum are from two Papertrey Ink sets, (Up, Up and Away, and Funky Florals) and the birds are from Melanie Meunchinger's Gifts from the Sea set at GinaK Designs.

 

Doing the clouds was an interesting exercise.  The darkest ones are actually done with pink ink, not orange, and after stamping the first row, I just kept going up and up, letting the ink get softer as I went along.  I did the same pink with a flower stamp to make the sun's rays.  Totally reads orange.

 

The grass die is from Amuse Studio.  That bugger is tough to work with, because it almost always makes a mark on the bottom of the cardstock you're cutting.  Putting it through the Cuttlebug with an embossing folder fixes that problem!  That's a green ribbon, darker than the one in front, separating the layers of grass, btw.

 

It's pretty hard to see in this photo,but the yellow circle living under the vellum has also been dry embossed, Swiss dots this time, and that little yellow brad holds it all together.  Foam adhesive pops it off the surface.

 

I think it looks like some scene from the Serengeti or something, minus the rhinoceros.  Sooooo...for what occasion is this appropriate?  And for whom? 

 

Is this suitable as a graduation card?  I guess the sentiment could be one of those things you'd shout after someone, before adding, "...and don't let the door hit you in the ass!"

Graduation card, it is!!!  ( I promise I WON'T put that on the inside.  Wouldn't that make a GREAT stamp, though?)

 

Now that I think about it, it could be a good card for someone starting a new job, or even, HEY!  How about your local doc who's about to do a Doctors Without Borders stint?  Or a teacher? Ok, so this is pretty applicable, after all.  Cool.

 

Thanks for stopping by! 

All Best-

Richard

 

 

 





The Many Layers that Are Mr Cardmaker

Ok, so there's two.  At least, in this instance.

So, I got this urge to make a project or two with some vellum.  I find vellum to be a tricky substance.  It warps if you look at it funny, and woe be unto you if you try to emboss it! 
Just stamp it, leave to dry (a looong time, just to be sure) and hope for the best. 

Anyway, I made these things--

One is note sized because I SMEARED it.  As one does. 

Anyway, see this lovely scene?  Flowers and leaves, and the sun, and a butterfly even.  Yeah, right, whatever.
But WAIT!  There's more to this than meets the eye!

Watch what happens when you lift the vellum--

 

Now go back and look at it the other way.  I'll wait here.  Go on....

 



Pretty cool, right?  I need to practice my sun's rays technique, I think, but isn't it kinda fun??
Like a "two-fer".  Sorta.

I thought this was fun.  I think if I go here again, I will try to avoid a huge flower over my sun and sentiment, but all in all, I kind of like this.

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Friday Fix

Well, I took the plunge and signed on with my friend Brian King to be an Independent Stampin'Up! Demonstrator.  I am SO not a big salesman, so this should be interesting.  I am a big fan of SU! colors; all the cardstocks and inks and embellies coordinate beautifully, and the quality of it all is just amazing.  They also gather a really wonderful group of people to them, so I am in good hands, I think! 

I had actually signed up a couple of years ago, and I was just overwhelmed with this KIT of stuff and all the paperwork, and this demand of sales.  I quietly let the whole thing fade away, a sad and miserable death.  I have a better idea of what I'd like this to be, this time.  I hope.  I look forward to working under Brian's wing, especially.  We crafty men have to stick together!

ANYWAY!

The box with all my goodies came, and I immediately busted it all out and got to creating something.  I got the blossom punch, and the Mixed Bunch stamp set, along with some Baja Breeze and Pumpkin Pie inks.  I was ready!!  I decided to do a quick, CAS card. 

I made this--

The paper is not SU!.  It's My Mind's Eye, I think.  Anyway, I stamped and punched the flowers, adhered them, stamped and trimmed out the sentiment (Wonderful Words, a past Hostess set, I think), did the layers, added some pearls, and viola!     Cute, I guess, but, wop wop.....uneven spacing on the center flower.  BOOOOO!  I was kinda bored by it, too.  So, moving the flower just wasn't going to cut it.

So, time for the big fix.  I hate to toss something that is this complete, especially when I haven't done my famous trick of smearing ink across the front at the last possible second.  This could be fixed, and I went to it!

I did this--

I went back to the stamp set and pulled out the smaller stamps.  A few scraps of cardstock from the layering pieces  (which I could've punched out before making the layering pieces, had I thought of it),some extra bling, and some felt flowers from Michael's, along with MANY Stampin' Dimensionals, and I was set.  Hard to even FIND the center of this floral madness, much less find the fault of it all!!

And, let's face it, three simple flowers doesn't say "Amazing, Awesome and Talented" anywhere NEAR what a riot of blooms can do!

I am liking the idea of a Fix-it Friday feature.  I sure make enough stuff I don't "love" that could benefit from some improvements!

Please think of me when you are looking for your Stampin'Up! products.  I would love to help you get creative with this great stuff!  I will be setting up a webpage that you can go to to place your orders just as soon as I can figure out how to do it.  In the meantime you can email me, and I will hook you up!

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best, and Happy Weekend!
Richard

Papertrey January Blog Hop Challenge

I have been saving these cards until today when I am entering the Black Background challenge at PTI.  My friend Melanie Meunchinger actually put me onto this "Pullin' Pastels" technique, and I loved it INSTANTLY!  You can see her post about this technique HERE.

I don't have any artist chalk or pastels, but I do have some colored chalkboard chalk, and that seemed to work just fine!  I scribbled onto a scrap of paper, and used a cotton ball to work it on my black background.  I used veramark to stamp, and this is what I got--

Is this not the COOLEST look??? 
So, the leaves are the stamped part here.  Isn't it amazing how much pulls off of the card stock, when you use versamark? 
The flowers look just like the same technique, but if you know this Rosie Posie set, you know that can't be.  That's a POSITIVE image, not a negative one. 
I stamped the flowers onto more black card stock with blue chalk ink!  I was so happy with how well it matched up!
The sentiment is a die cut.  I clear embossed the black paper before I cut it out.  Love that shine!

But wait!  There's more--

With this one, I used yellow chalk.  It turned out more yellowy-cream on the black, and I like that!
I used the Funky Florals set here, with a Think Big Favorites set for the sentiment.  Pale Yellow chalk ink helped with the flower centers, and the dots.

Then this guy--

This one was more yellow chalk, and the Harvest Berries set.  Instead of more chalk ink, I used my Sakura glitter pen.  This photo makes it look gold, but it really is much more silver in person.

And finally--

Back to blue chalk, and the Up, Up and Away set.  This almost reminds me of the black and white part of the Wizard of Oz.  I love the clouds, and look how crisp the lines are on the balloons!  That's merely Versamark lifting the chalk off of the card stock!  No embossing!! (except for the sentiment, of course)

It was SUCH fun doing a new-to-me technique, especially when the outcome is so fast, and so cool!!
Try it!

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best--
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is having a Yummy Casadia

Well, I couldn't be happier.  I was put into the roster for Wida Miller's awesome Casadia (A CASE + an Idea) at Beachorado.  I am in a line of VERY good company, and we are all working off a super cute card by Laura Bassen..

This is Laura's card--



and waaaaaay down the line, I was given this card to CASE by Jaclyn Miller--

.....NICE, Right???

So, here's MY take on that one--

This circle card was cut with Spellbinders dies, and the letters are PTI dies.  The hearts are a Stampin'Up punch, cut from paper that I coated with clear embossing powder for some shine.  Sadly, that doesn't play in this photo.  they are also popped up with some foam adhesive.  The black card stock was run through the Cuttlebug with a hounds tooth embossing folder.  Cute and mostly simple.  It did take me three tries to get something I really liked.

 CASEing is not for the faint of heart.  You really want to honor the idea you're working with, but at the same time, you want to make it your own.  However, it is SO much fun, and so rewarding when you finally rise from the work table triumphant!!
I love the word "hiya"; don't you?   It immediately makes me feel chummy and welcomed.  I use it whenever possible in real life.

Just so you get an idea, I figured I'd leave you with a peek at my prior iterations.  They just didn't blow my skirt up, if you know what I mean.  The first one loses impact because the letters are too diffused, and the second is better than just okay, but just not really a home run, either.

They look like this--

So, that's my story.  Check out the rest of Casadia's projects, and stay tuned for more to come.  Somebody is CASEing me next!

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is Black and White with a Pop

Hey guys!

Today I am showing a card I made for my friend Janeen, who is on the job hunt.  I can't think of  a much more Unfun thing to do, so I hope this cheers her up a bit. 

I made her this--

I love the Cuttlebug folder I used.  I swiped the raised portions with my white pigment ink pad and let it dry overnight.  The background is stamped with my Jenny Bowlin receipt stamp, and the sentiment is SU.  The brads make a real impact on all that clockworks, I think.  I added just a pop of pink, and I think it really says  "girl at work."  To me it does, anyway!    And, just to be sure it stays feminine, a little black and white baker's twine bow on the sentiment flag.

So that's it.  I was planning to enter this at Simon Says Stamp, for their challenge, but I missed the deadline.  *SIGH*...
UPDATE!  I am a DOPE!  I did NOT miss the deadline.....Read the WORDS, Richard!!!!
Anyway, I think Janeen will be happy about it.  Who doesn't love snail mail, anyway?

Thanks for stopping by!  Happy Thursday!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is a Calendar Guy

No, no pin up pics of me.  I know you're disappointed.  Your breakfast will thank me for being allowed to remain in your stomach, trust me.  =)

I made a couple of calendars!  Early last Spring, I went to a craft show, and hit the Stamps of Life booth, where I picked up a couple of stamp sets, including Calendar to Build.  I thought this was a cute font, and I liked all the little things you could play with to really liven up a calendar.

Well, as much as I like this stamp, the calendar was TOUGH to work with.  You're supposed to be able to shift the days back and forth to make the month start when it should.  That DOES work, but only in months with 31 days.  30 day months (or 28/29 day February) really fouls you up.  I worked like a fool trying to line stuff up for hours until I finally decided to just cut the stamp up.  Muuuuuch easier! 

 Anyway, here's what I came up with--

I used white card stock from Staples for this project.  I found nice, smooth heavy weight card stock on the shelf there, and it has been a good staple card stock for me.  I cut it to 3"x 3 1/4", just large enough to hold the calendar.  I did all my numbers stamping first, starting with the easy 31 day months, then making myself cuckoo with the 30 and 28 day months.  I won't go into all the machinations that I went through, but suffice to say it was not so much fun.
I then went back and added the days header over the numbers, and the month headers above that.  It took me a while to decide to do the year and the flourish and little architectural stamping, but it all looked kind of naked.  The flourish is from PTI Menorah Medley  and the architectural stamp is from Stampendous' Tiled Quad Cube.

After getting all of that done (WHEW!), I gathered them together, and held them tightly at the top.  I laid down a big fat bead of hot-melt glue, and then dipped the tops into it, making sure I hit all the surface of the edges with glue.  I then let that cool, and trimmed off any extra with my snips.  It looked kind of messy still, so I added a strip of my patterned paper to the top to make it look nicer.

Here's a more face-on view--

Originally, I had this great idea to bind them all together with brads.  I even pierced some holes with my paper piercer to get started.  However, my lettering in several of the months was too high on the card stock to make that work.  Wop, wop... Of course, I already had hole in my January, so I added the brads and twine anyway.  Unfortunately, it will be gone once January gets ripped off.  Oh well.  This is a prototype, and it's going to DP Charlie, and he won't mind.  Good lesson learned!
ALSO-- I am worried about what will happen in February when it's time to rip off that first sheet.  Will the hot-melt glue be too strong to tear, and mess up the whole thing??  Maybe some of you know a better glue to use, or can tell me everything's gonna be okay?  I will tell Charlie to use scissors, just to be sure, I guess.

Oh, the brads are from Michael's, and the twine is from We R Memory Keepers.  The ink is Iced Spruce Distress Ink.  I also used Ranger Archival black ink, and Memento London Fog ink on the leaves.

The background is a 4"x 4" piece of Pink Paisley DP, with a stamped die cut from PTI, the Harvest Berries set. It's mounted on TWO pieces of GinaK Designs 120# white card stock.  I placed one of the pieces in my Scor-pal, and scored about halfway up the center.  I then cut from about an inch to one side of the score line to the top of the score line to create a stand for the calendar.  It stood a bit too ramrod straight up and down for my taste, so I snipped just a teeny tiny sliver off of the bottom of the "foot" so it would lean back a bit.
That looks like this--

See that little line at the top of the foot there?  That's where I assembled the front onto the backing without looking at where things were.  That's why there's TWO pieces of card stock at the back. (dumb, dumb, dumb...)  Actually, I like how sturdy it is with the two pieces.  I recommend that.

I also made another one.  This is the first one, actually.  It looks like this--

This is made with My Mind's Eye paper, and I hand inked the purple.  The numbers dies are from PTI.

So, I am glad I worked out all, well, most, ok, several of my problems with these guys.
I found a free print out of a 2014 calendar online, so I can try more, and save them for next year.  If I do one or two a month, I'll have gifts or something to sell somewhere.  These are pretty time consuming, even with all the adjustments I made.  We'll see how it goes.

PS--I just read on a blog somewhere that not having a good supplies list was a real bummer for readers.  You'll notice I linked to most everything I used on these projects.  There has to be a better way to do this, as well, I think.  Today, I went and looked up each and every one of these items and made a link to them. (Ouch!)
Who has a better idea about this?  Is a supplies list even important to you??  Let me know your thoughts, please.

Thanks for stopping by today!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is Feeling His Moxie Fab-ishness

Well, ain't I something?!  I am the Moxie Fabber of the Week over at Moxie Fab World!  I am very honored to be chosen.  Cath is the BEST!  Lots of fun happening at Moxie Fab World every week!
What a great thing to take me into the holiday season! 

I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving.  Mine was SO great, but I have to say it was everything BUT relaxing.  We had from 2-4 house guests all week, and THIRTEEN for dinner on Thursday, as well as more dinners tucked in here and there.  Wow, it was fun and really delicious, but I sure needed a NAP by Sunday afternoon!

This week, I wanted to share this card set that I made for my sister, Lisa.  This will probably be the last of the leaves that you'll get from me this season, unless they're Holly or something....

I made this--

Oh, did I mention there was a box?  There's a box.  To hold the cards.

Anyway, a while back I won ('cause my mom says I'm a winner!) a card class from My Little Craft Blog where I learned how do do these leaves with sponge daubers and clear embossing powder, as well as the gold and folder embossed pieces that you see on the bottoms of the cards.  My design is different overall, but I REALLY like this leaf technique, and will use it a lot!

I particularly like the box.  I will make many of those, I'm sure.  It is roomy and sturdy.  Because I won the class, I can't give you too much info on how to create all of these things, but I believe the class is still available for purchase, and it is really fun and informative.  I don't be stealin' from nobody's stuff, so don' ask!

Speaking of leaves, you may remember my rant about having to deal with my forest full of leaves in THIS post.  Well, the other day, Charlie and I returned home from a day out to find that our yard had been mowed and EVERY LEAF WAS GONE!  GONE, I tell you, GONE! 

Turns out, my neighbors Chris (across the street) and Eric (behind us) had been out with their tractors, and after they did their own leaves, got to chatting and decided to make a contest of "who-could-get-up-our-leaves-fastest."  Are these guys the best, or what???  Well, I baked them cookies, and, of course, made them cards. 

They look like this--

The sentiment is from 7Gypsies, and the leaf stamps are from Studio112.  I used the same leaf technique for the card stock leaves, as I'm sure you can tell.

Anyway--Chris has been back 4 times(!) to get more leaves, and I could not be more grateful.  He has gotten a thank you care package to supplement his cookies, btw...

SO, That's about it. I have some close-ups of this card set to show you...

Here they are--Please forgive the blur on some of them.

 I will have some Christmas cards to share with you next time!

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

All Best-

Richard  

Supplies--

Card set and box--card stock, GinaKDesigns; Inks, Stampin' Up!, Ink it Up, Memento; papers, Stampin Up!, Buttons, Joann's: Embossing powder, Ranger; twine, Ranger; leaf punches, EKSuccess and Fiskars.

Thank You cards--Card stock, papers, and inks all Stampin' Up!; sentiment, 7Gypsies; leaf stamps, Studio112; buttons, Joann's; twine, Ranger; leaf punches, EKSuccess and Fiskars.



Mr Cardmaker is No Longer a Blue Ribbon Guy

Just a quick posting for the end of the week, to catch you up with some ideas I've been playing with.

My local JoAnn's had some Jenny Bowlin for Fiskars punches on clearance, so I grabbed a couple.  Sadly, I dropped one that made really cool blue ribbon cuts, and broke it.  Wop wop.  I was able to put it to use to make this card, though, and the bird punch, also JB for Fiskars, survived.  There are lots of stamps going on here.  The background is Jenny Bowlin, the phone is Claudine Hellmuth Studio, the So Retro set  , the "You are pretty amazing" is Papertrey Ink, and the "you inspire me" is by Stampin' Up.  The papers are all SU, as is the binder punch.  The card base is GinaK Designs.  I also did some dry embossing on my ScorPal.

The buttons and pearls are dollar bin specials, and the twine is from Paper Source.  Notice how I used my hole punch to make a spot for the twine to rest in? 

This was so fun to make, and I am sad my blue ribbon punch is dead. 

Hope you have a great weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

This is Only a Test-er Card

So, I have been musing this idea of making sellable cards, and I have been trying to design something that I can recreate easily.  Of course, making something that people will want to buy would be good, too.

Anyway-  The samples begin.

I made this--

I used my Cloud Duo dies from A*Muse Studio, and cut several clouds from white card stock scraps.
One of them became the shape I used to sponge clouds onto my 4"x5" piece of PTI white cs.  I used Memento Cantelope ink for the clouds.  I then used a sponge dauber with some blue ink (was it Memento Summer Sky, maybe?) on the clouds, but they totally didn't work with the background, so I used the cantelope on top of it.  You don't usually see green clouds, but living in the Midwest, you see some crazy colored clouds during tornado season, so I kept on going!
I stamped the sentiment (from SU) twice, in order to get that shadowed effect.

The grass is on SU designer series paper, and was cut with a grass die, again from A*Muse Studio.  I cut about 1/2" from the bottom of my card front, and only adhered the bottom of my grass strip to the bottom of the inside of the card.  Then I tucked the edge of the card front behind the grass.  I think it's a fun way to hold the card shut.  Here's a detail of the card flap, opened--

To finish everything up, I adhered the clouds in place with some adhesive and some foam tape, mounted the white piece onto some old wild wasabi stock, and adhered it to the card base. (the base is made from, I think, PTI Summer Sunrise.  I have a multicolor pack from them, and I think it is that)

Okay--
SO the reason I sort of like this one is that doing the background and the clouds was FAST and EASY.  I also think the grass idea is different, and people might like that.  I can also play with other colors, like melon mambo and different grays and pinks and blues.

SO!  Feedback me up, dear reader!  I need some help!  How much would you pay for this (in the days when you weren't doing it yourself, that is)?

More samples to come!  I should be very pro-blogger-ific this week!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
All Best--
Richard